Ask a group of pupils what they think of chemistry, and you’ll likely hear a familiar set of responses: “It’s too abstract,” “I don’t see the point,” or the classic, “When am I ever going to use this?”
These are reasonable objections. When chemistry is taught purely through equations and periodic tables, it can feel like a foreign language.
In reality, chemistry happens all around us, and understanding it makes everyday life more interesting. When teachers anchor these abstract concepts to familiar experiences, something shifts. Chemistry stops being something that just happens in a lab or a boring classroom and starts being something that explains the world pupils already live in.
The beauty industry has unwittingly become one of chemistry’s greatest ambassadors. Concepts that once gathered dust – acids and bases, pH, molecular structure, emulsification – suddenly become compelling when pupils can link these concepts to how a vitamin C serum works, or why mixing certain products can irritate skin. Teaching pH through the lens of skincare gives students an immediate, personal reason to care. A toner labelled “pH-balanced” stops being marketing jargon and becomes a real-world application of acid-base chemistry.
The kitchen is another avenue into chemistry. Baking is a masterclass in chemical reactions playing out in real time. The fluffy rise of a cake depends on carbon dioxide produced by the reaction between baking soda and an acidic ingredient like buttermilk or lemon juice. Egg proteins denature and set in the heat of an oven, giving a cake its structure. The Maillard reaction – the complex interaction between amino acids and reducing sugars under heat – is responsible for the deep brown crust on grilled chicken or a toasted slice of bread. Introducing this to pupils reframes cooking itself as a precise, repeatable science. Suddenly, professional chefs and research chemists share more common ground than pupils ever imagined.
Even something as humble as making pasta involves chemistry. Salt doesn’t just flavor the water — it raises the boiling point slightly and affects the starch gelatinisation in the noodles, changing their final texture. Knowing this won’t make you a professional chef overnight, but it will make you a more intuitive cook who understands why techniques work.
Few things feel more magical than fireworks, yet the colours on display are pure chemistry. Different metal salts produce different colours when burned: strontium gives red, barium gives green, copper gives blue. This is atomic emission spectroscopy made spectacular, and it provides one of the most striking demonstrations of how electrons absorbing and releasing energy produces visible light. A bonfire night or New Year’s celebration becomes a reference point pupils carry with them long after the lesson ends.
The deeper principle here is relevance. Research consistently shows that pupils engage more deeply with material when they can connect it to their own lives and identities. Contextualised chemistry doesn’t dumb the subject down: it builds a bridge across which genuine curiosity can travel.
Chemistry is not confined to laboratories. It lives in kitchen cupboards, bathroom shelves and the sky on New Year’s Eve. When pupils see that, the question stops being “When will I ever use this?” and becomes something far more interesting: “How does this actually work?”
That is precisely where lasting learning begins.
By Charani Dharmawardhane
Head of Chemistry
